Eystein Eggen and Unni Friis Skogstad.   Head of Quality  and Governmental grant holder. Son of a SS-man and daughter of a british staff sergeant / niece of an an US Army soldier, and very much for reconciliation after WWII.  The couple Eggen/Skogstad, beeing distant cousins have  common family ties to the old military centers Maalselv and Bardu in Tromsø county in northern Norway.

 For index side, click  norwegian, for other versions of the interview "Forsoningen" by Hans Broch-Nielsen, click  english,  deutsch,  francais or  italiano, par favore. For the  present absolute necessity of letting bygones be bygones, se recent letter to Skogstad/Eggen from chief of Norwegian Police Security, with further public documentation on Volapuk, page 45

In the year 1865 Unni Friis Skogstads great-great grandfather Ingjerd Skogstad ( born1824) came to Maalselv high up in the north of Norway with wife and their five children. He bought the farm Tillermoen where he died in the year 1905. His son Andres Skogstad (1849-1888) married  Petra Caroline Friis and became an organist and composer in Mandal, a town on the southernmost tip of Norway.

Below are five views from the Maalselv valley. Ice Peaks in the background. The last picture shows the higher part of the valley, "Øvrebygd", where Ingjerd and his family lived.

It has been discussed in the family why Ingjerd's son Andreas became a musician in Mandal. Andreas' neighbour and brother-in-law in his youth was Kristian Halvorsen (born 1865) , from Skjeggesnes in "Øvrebygd". He is said to have composed the popular "Skjeggesnes waltzer". Kristian  later went to the USA, where he became a well-known musician, and then he wrote his name Christian Halvorson.

                                                                   

In the year 1949 Eystein Eggens grandfather, the skogstad historian Eystein Eggen the older (1886-1973), came to Maalselvs neighbour valley Bardu to write the history about its settlers. Ten years later his Bardu history was completed. Ice Peaks in the background

The first cottage. Here  the two familes Jon Simonsen Kalbækken and Ole Olsen Brandvold  lived together in the first years 1791-1793.

Setermoen, the capital of Bardu and for fifty years of Norway's landmiltary forces.

Skjold. High up in  the Maalselv valley. Close to the border of Sweden and Finland, and with an easy winter way to Russia. Last stand of the norwegian packsaddle horse.

The Bardu history comittee in 1949. Front row: Richard Tønseth, chairman, Eystein Eggen the older, writer, the teacher Ingebr. Hasvold. Second row: Johan Brandvold, Ola Nytrøen, Oliver Strand.